Security forces have detained a suspect in the killing last week of a top regional security official in Russia's volatile North Caucasus.

An official from Russia's Investigative Committee said September 4 that the 27-year-old suspect, Artur Dolsayev, had been apprehended in the Chechen capital, Grozny.

The head of the Security Council in Ingushetia, Akhmed Kotiev, was shot dead on August 27 by several gunmen while traveling in his car. Kotiev's driver was also killed.

Investigators said then that an Islamic insurgency leader, Artur Getagazhev, and his associates were involved in the killing.

The North Caucasus has become Russia's most violence-plagued region in recent years.

Militants in Ingushetia, Daghestan, Chechnya, and Kabardino-Balkaria frequently attack police, moderate Muslims, and local officials, saying they are fighting to create an Islamic state in southern Russia.